I just finished up a stay at the Westin DFW for three nights for an annual event in Dallas I’ve been going to for a few years.
The host hotel is the Westin, and I stay there every time – their service towards SPG Elites has generally been very, very good – last year I even received a suite upgrade on a sold out weekend.
The last few years I’ve been coming, the hotel provided vouchers for the hotel restaurant to SPG Platinums – literally these were $15 “coupons” with no restriction to the hotel restaurant. You’d get one per night, so for the past several years I enjoyed lunch on the house each day. Let me say this is extremely generous and is not listed as an SPG benefit anywhere, but is something the hotel did for elites as a nice gesture.
This year was the first year I didn’t receive these vouchers and I inquired to the hotel, as I knew the gal checking me in was brand new.
Here’s what they had to say:
Thank you for reaching out with your inquiry. We no longer provide complimentary beverage vouchers. Following the merger with Marriott, ownership has been required to make some changes to adhere to new guidelines.
That’s right – they were asked to make changes based upon the Marriott merger. To me, what this says is that Marriott thought that they were too generous and wanted the hotel to stick only to the necessities. On the other hand, if a hotel wants to go out of their way to provide a benefit to guests that’s above and beyond the program itself, it confuses me why the overarching company would want to stop it.
To me, this signals poor things to come for SPG elites. What’s your take?
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Sound like a cheap excuse for normal cost cutting.
I do not think it is merger related.
“On the other hand, if a hotel wants to go out of their way to provide a benefit to guests that’s above and beyond the program itself, it confuses me why the overarching company would want to stop it.”
There’s something to be said about consistency here. Marriott wants its experience to be as identical as possible across the board with its rewards program. The overarching company is responsible for ensuring that the experience from one hotel to the next is the same, and hotels that offer other benefits not authorized by the company alter the experience. It’s an issue with the brand. Even if it is more generous, it’s still an issue.
I call BS. I stayed at the Marriott next door and they gave me an upgrade, 500 points welcome gift, and free breakfast vouchers (all standard). When I asked about the lounge (I mistakenly thought they had a 24/7 M Lounge) I was given another two $15 vouchers. Maybe it’s just that Westin?